Vietnam’s ethnic minorities long for the Bible

Published: 14/08/2019   ~   0

Many of Vietnam’s 54 ethnic groups are marginalised and at the bottom of the rung economically and in terms of literacy rates.

Yet, it’s among these marginalised groups that Christianity has often taken a hold. This is why the Vietnam Bible Society is undertaking the critical task of translating the Bible into their various heart languages.

Hmong women in a rural village in Laos.

The Hmong

The Hmong people live in Vietnam’s northern highlands.  In the 1980s, the Hmong stumbled across a Hmong-language Christian radio programme being broadcast from Manila.  Soon, Christianity spread like wildfire through the Hmong population. Today, 300,000 out of the one million Hmong living in Vietnam is Christian. continue reading →

United Bible Societies launches new Romani Bible app

Published: 14/08/2019   ~   0

After a long digitisation project, United Bible Society (UBS) has just launched a brand new mobile app for Romani speakers.

Members of the Romani church in Leskovac, Serbia, with copies of the Gospel of Mark in Romani received from the Bible Society of Serbia on April 17, 2011.

The app contains 21 historic and current Romani Scriptures in Latin script, with Cyrillic texts coming soon.  The earliest Romani Scripture in the app is from 1837 in Calo of Spain/Portugal. The app also includes some audio versions.

The versions are in different forms of Romani such as Calo, Lavari, Kalderash, Vlax and Sinti from England, France, Iberia (Spain-Portugal), Germany, the Baltic region, Scandinavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy and former Yugoslavia… and even one from Chile. continue reading →

Project update – Domestic violence prevention in Guatemala

Published: 12/08/2019   ~   0

Yes! There is a solution to domestic violence in Guatemala.

Thanks to the generosity of Bible Society New Zealand’s Bible a Month Club supporters, we have been able to support a life-changing domestic violence prevention programme in Guatemala, a country with very high rates of domestic violence.

During the first six months of 2019, 602 families and 1,021 children participated in three workshops on the prevention of child abuse. These workshops are built on biblical principles and values. Eleven schools and churches located in vulnerable areas have also opened their doors for the project. The most amazing result from this has been the interest in the Bible shown by children. Many have formed reading clubs and some teachers are including the Bible in their classes as a reading text. continue reading →

Australian Bible historian to give lecture in Wellington

Published: 01/08/2019   ~   0

Respected Australian historian, author and broadcaster Meredith Lake is visiting Wellington

Public lecture: Race and the Bible Down Under

The Bible arrived down under at a time when Europeans were rethinking both Scripture and race. From land-hungry colonists to Indigenous evangelists, white supremacists to anti-racism activists – people across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have read it very differently, with nothing less than humanity at stake.

This lecture will explore how the Bible has been taken up down under, to contest what it means to be human and to cross cultural boundaries – and what we might learn from that today. continue reading →